In ledger are, native artists create pictographic chronicles of real-life events on antique ledger paper. Ledger art dates back to the mid-1800s, when Plains Indians began using bookkeepers’ ledgers to paint pictographic representations of battles and other important events involved with warrior exploits. Stylistically, ledger art tends to feature two-dimensional, flat, elongated images — like the symbols early ledger artists used when buffalo were plentiful enough for winter counts to be drawn each year on the hides as a sort of year in review. “Ledger art really is one of the principal forms of historical and tribal knowledge,” says Ross Frank, director of the Plains Indian Ledger Art Project at the University of California, San Diego.  

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